U.S. offshore wind energy market is taking off

At the AWEA Offshore WindPower 2016 event in Warwich, Rhode Island, LKAB Minerals Inc. met up with decision makers in the international wind energy market.

“There are lots of interesting projects being planned and many companies are developing new windfarms. The US offshore wind power industry is finally starting to take off; representatives from most of the industry’s players were gathered” LKAB Minerals’ event representative Peter Johansson told us.

Bright future for offshore wind farms in America

Offshore wind energy in the United States is at an early stage. This year construction of the very first offshore wind project was started near the coasts of Rhode Island. Situated at about 3.3 nautical miles southeast of Block Island, the wind farm is expected to begin production soon and will host five turbines that will combined produce 30MW.

The United States have a vast offshore wind energy resource with a power potential of more than 4,000,000 MW that could contribute up to four times of the generating capacity of the current American electrical system. There are 13 proposed offshore wind projects spanning ten states in various stages of development off the East, West and Great Lakes coasts, representing almost 6,000 MW of development with turbine sizes ranging from 3 to 6MW.

The shared belief in the renewable energy industry is that floating platforms will be the future. Even though these constructions are very new to the industry, floating platforms have the benefits that they can be standardised across all the installations. This enables the economy of scale savings necessary to make wind power a competitive energy source compared to the traditional technologies used today.

In Europe, LKAB Minerals supplies MagnaDense to the first commercial floating wind farm at the Scottish North Sea waters called Hywind Scotland Pilot Park. This wind farm includes five floating turbines that will generate a total of 30MW.

Your offshore project benefits from more weight and less volume

In addition to floating wind turbines, our heavy MagnaDense is also used in gravity based foundations. Depending on your construction our iron oxide based natural high density MagnaDense can be used for both loose ballast and as an aggregate for high density concrete. Our readily available product will provide you with more weight, but enables you to keep your design within specified dimensions.

As LKAB Minerals, we are proud to tell you that our MagnaDense mineral is:

World-wide wind projects expertise

Since the start of offshore wind power projects we have been involved in a variety of offshore wind installations. With our experience we can help you recognise the possibilities and benefits that MagnaDense brings to your next offshore wind farm.

We can help you to find the best logistical solution for the MagnaDense supply, wherever your project will be based. If you’d like to receive more information on our experience in offshore projects please watch our offshore video which explains the origin of our natural mineral in detail, the logistic routes and the services we can provide to offshore wind projects. You can also contact us for detailed Case Studies on some of our offshore projects.